Midlands

Mr Gilfil’s Love Story (Dir. A V Bramble, GB, 1920) (Screening format – not known, ??mins) Based upon the George Eliot story Mr Gilfey’s Love Story from her 1858 collection Scenes of Clerical Life, this tells the tale of Reverand Maynard Gilfil (Robert Henderson Bland) and his love for Caterina (Mary Odette) the adopted daughter of an aristocratic family. But when his affections are ignored and she focuses her attentions instead on Captain Wybrow (Peter Upcher), the heir to the family estate, then tragedy looms. Find out more atwikipedia.org . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

Edgar Allan Poe Evening featuring The Fall of the House of Usher (Dir. James Sibley Watson/Melville Webber, US, 1928) + The Tell Tale Heart (Dir. Charles Klein/Leon Shamroy, US, 1928) + Prelude(Dir. Castleton Knight, UK, 1927) Screening format – not known, 13/24/7 mins) This was an early avant-garde interpretation of Poe’s story of brother and sister living under a family curse, heavily influenced by German Expressionist filmmaking. Focusing more on style than a cogent plot, the film was largely overshadowed by Jean Epstein’s French version of the story, made the same year. Find out more atwikipedia.org . In The Tell Tale Heart A man grows to hate his neighbor, an old man whose penetrating gaze unnerves him. He plans a perfect crime and executes it one night. But when two investigating officers arrive to question him, will his beating heart give him away? Taking its style from the German Expressionism of Caligari, this is a highly stylised adaption of Poe’s story. Find out more atimdb.com . In a whirl of avant-garde imagery, Prelude sees a man (Castleton Knight) hallucinating being buried alive after reading an Edgar Alan Poe story. Find out more at imdb.com Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by the BFI’s Bryony Dixon. With live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. St Mary De Castro Church, Leicester. Link

14 September

Rookery Nook (Dir. Tom Walls, UK, 1930) (Screening format – not known, 76mins) An early sound film, highlighting the transition from silent to sound, Rookery Nook was scripted by Ben Travers and based on his original 1926 Aldwych Farce of the same title. When Rhoda Marley (Winifred Shotter) seeks refuge overnight from a tyrannical stepfather in the house of Gerald Popkiss (Ralph Lynn) he seeks to conceal her presence for fear of the scandal as his own wife is away. But that is just the start of his troubles… Find out more atallmovie.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Raise the Roof (Dir. Walter Summers, UK, 1930) (Screening format – not known, 76mins) An early British musical highlighting the transition from silent to sound, Raise The Roof sees an amiable rich boy (Maurice Evans) take charge of a failing musical revue. His father (Sam Livsey) disapproves and hires an actor (Jack Raine) to join the company and sabotage the production. But the plot is discovered by actress Maisey Grey (Betty Balfour) but will she be in time to save the day… Director Walter Summers is probably better known for silent wartime dramas such as A Couple of Down and Outs (1923) and Battles of the Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) so this film, probably the first British musical, marked quite a change of direction. Find out more atimdb.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Such Is The Law (Dir. Sinclair Hill, UK, 1930) (Screening format – not known, 88mins) An early British sound drama but utilising extensive footage and plot from a never released silent The Price of Divorce (1928), highlighting the transition from silent to sound, Such Is The Law sees a mother (Kate Cutler) attempting to give her troubled daughter (Frances Day, image right) some sage advice in order to save her marriage. Find out more atwikipedia.org . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Suspense (Dir. Walter Summers, UK, 1930) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) An early sound film, highlighting the transition from silent to sound, Suspense sees a group of WWI British soldiers (including Cyril McLaglen, brother of Victor) sheltering in a trench and gradually becoming aware that the Germans are digging beneath them. Find out more at imdb.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by Geoff Brown Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Cocktails (Dir. Monty Banks, UK, 1928) (Screening format not known, 100mins) Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen were a leading pair of ‘Fat and Skinny’ comedians in the movie world long before Laurel and Hardy came along, going by the title “Pat und Patachon”. In Cocktails, the pair are a couple of petty thieves who wind up in England, involved by chance in a cocaine smuggling racket. Find out more at warming.dk . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by Laraine Porter. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Phantom Of The Opera (Dir. Rupert Julian, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 103mins) A title that needs no introduction, The Phantom of the Opera has spawned many remakes, remasters and sequels. This original film version, produced with moments of early Technicolour, sees Lon Chaney, the ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’ perform one of his most iconic roles. His ghastly make-up and outrageous performance made this title a benchmark in the American silent film era. The film was a critical and commercial success upon release, and still stands as an important film in cinematic history to this day, with press quotes from the time labelling the film an ‘ultra-fantastic melodrama’ (New York Times), ‘produced on a stupendous scale’ (Moving Picture World) and ‘probably the greatest inducement to nightmare that has yet been screened’ (Variety). The mysterious phantom (Lon Chaney) is a vengeful composer living in the catacombs under the Paris Opera House, determined to promote the career of the singer he loves (Mary Philbin). Famed for the phantom’s shock unmasking, incredible set designs and the masked ball sequence, it still packs a punch. Find out more atwikipedia.org. With live musical accompaniment by acclaimed musicians Minima. The Theatre, Chipping Norton. Link

15 September

Balaclava (Dir. Maurice Elvey/Milton Rosmer, UK, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 72mins) A British officer (Cyril McLaglan) is falsely accused of murder and is dishonorably discharged from the army. He rejoins as an enlisted man and is posted as a cavalryman to the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War. He discovers that there is a Russian spy masquerading as a British soldier, and his efforts to unmask the spy results in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade. The film was re-released in 1930 as a talkie while very young David Lean worked on the picture as an assistant/second unit director. Find out more atimdb.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by Laraine Porter. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

Men Like These (Dir. Walter Summers, UK, 1931) (Screening format – not known, 63 mins) An early sound film, highlighting the transition from silent to sound, Men Like These tells of a British submarine on patrol which is accidentally rammed by a merchant ship. The submarine sinks and the men inside are trapped men. Unless they can find a means of escape they are all doomed. Find out more atimdb.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by Laraine Porter. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Dawson City – Frozen Time (Dir. Bill Morrison, US, 2016) (Screening format – not known, 120mins) This documentary pieces together the bizarre true story of a collection of some 500 films dating from 1910s – 1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory, in Dawson City, located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Using these permafrost protected, rare silent films and newsreels, archival footage, interviews and historical photographs to tell the story, and accompanied by an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers (Captain Fantastic), Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts a unique history of a Canadian gold rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation – and through that collection, how a First Nation hunting camp was transformed and displaced. Find out more atpicturepalacepictures.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester. Link

Different from the Others (Dir. Richard Oswald, Ger, 1919) (Screening format – not known, 50mins) Released in 1919, and banned in 1920, Different From The Others explores a doomed relationship between a master violinist (Conrad Veidt) and his male student (Fritz Schulz) as their relationship is uncovered and they become a target for blackmailers. One of the first gay-themed films in the history of cinema, banned by Weimar and burned by the Nazis, only an incomplete version of the original film survives. Find out more atnytimes.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With an illustrated talk by Dr Matthew Jones. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

Hands Up (Dir. Clarence Badger, US, 1926) (Screening format – not known, 70mins) Made in the same year as Keaton’s The General, this is another comedy about the American Civil War but one which has been almost totally forgotten despite it being both critically and financially more successful than Keaton’s film on its initial release. Raymond Griffith plays Jack, a Confederate spy, sent to sabotage Union plans to secure a new source of finance for the war. Facing death at the hands of a firing squad, a hang-man and marauding indians, Jack is helped on his way by a couple of sisters, but how will he choose between them? Find out more atnitratediva.wordpress.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

16 September

P.G Wodehouse programme featuring Rodney Fails to Qualify (Dir. Andrew P Wilson, UK, 1924) + Ordeal by Golf (Dir. Andrew P Wilson, UK, ) + The Long Hole (Dir. Andrew P Wilson, UK, 1924) (Screening format – not known). Three short adaptions of the golfing stories of P G Wodehouse made by the Stoll Picture Productions company and all starring Harry Beasley. Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment plus reading by Neil Brand and Bryony Dixon Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

Canine Capersfeaturing Wedding Bells (Dir. Chester Withey, US, 1921) + Limousine Love (Dir. Fred Guiol, US, 1928) + Teddy at the Throttle (Dir. Clarence G Badger, US, 1917) + Rescued by Rover (Dir. Lewis Fitzhamon, Uk, 1905) (Screening format – not known, 60/20/24/7 mins) In Wedding Bells their respective dogs bring Constance Talmadge and Harrison Ford (no, not that one!!) together, but it proves to be a rocky road. Find out more atwikipedia.org . In Limousine Love, Charley Chase’s troubles are just beginning when, on the way to his wedding, he finds a nude, married woman in his car. Find out more atimdb.com. In Teddy at the Throttle can Teddy the dog save the day and protect Gloria Dawn (Gloria Swanson) from her wicked guardian (Wallace Beery). Find out more atcenturyfilmproject.org . Rescued by Rover was a very early silent drama, very much ahead of its time in terms of filming techniques, editing, production and story telling, from the Cecil Hepworth Company and featuring Hepworth’s own dog Blair in the title role saving a baby from kidnappers and in the process becoming the cinema’s first movie-star dog. Find out more atscreenonline.org.uk Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

The Pleasure Garden (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, UK, 1925) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) Patsy (Virginia Valli), a chorus girl at the Pleasure Garden music hall helps down on her luck dancer Jill (Carmelita Geraghty) get a job in her show. But when Jill’s fiance Hugh (John Stuart) turns up, he and Patsy are drawn to each other. Meanwhile Jill is living the highlife and being courted by a rich prince. Even though this was Hitchcock’s first film, all the ingredients are in place for a story of high suspense. Find out more atsilentlondon.co.uk . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

A Sister of Six ( aka Die sieben Töchter der Frau Gyurkovics, aka Flickorna Gyurkovics) (Dir. Ragnar Hylten-Cavallius, Ger/Swe/UK. 1926) (Screening format – not known, 102mins) A romantic comedy set in contemporary Hungary, revolving around two of the daughters of the Gyurkovics family, Mizzi (Betty Balfour) and Katinka (Anna-Lisa Ryding), and their various suitors, with a complex plot of mistaken identities, cross-dressing and love triangles. Find out more atcinetecadelfriuli.org (Page 190-191). Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, Leicester.Link

Vampyr (Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) (Screening format – not known, 75mins) Technically, Dryer’s first sound film but with very little dialogue and extensive use made of inter-titles) Staying at a country inn, Allan Grey scoffs at the notion of supernatural death before being forced to believe that there may be things beyond his understanding. The skills of director and cameraman induce a similar confusion on the part of those watching, as we encounter one of cinema’s great nightmares. Dreyer offers few explanations for the phenomena on screen: strange and frightening things may just happen. Vampyr opened to a generally negative reception from audiences and critics. Dreyer edited the film after its German premiere and it opened to more mixed opinions at its French debut. The film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career, but modern critical reception to the film has become much more favorable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere. Find out more atwikipedia.org Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment by Minima and Stephen Horne. Phoenix Cinema, LeicesterLink

17 September

Paradise (Dir. Denison Clift, UK, 1928) (Screening format – not known, 87mins) Kitty Cranston (Betty Balfour) dreams of escape from dreary London. When she wins money in a lottery she plans a holiday in the South of France but neither her clergyman father or her fiance are interested. So she sets off on her own. For a time she is happy, spending time with Spirdoff (Alexander D’arcy) a self-confessed gigolo, but will scandal be her downfall? Find out more atsilentfilmcalendar.org . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, LeicesterLink

The Flying Scotsman (Dir. Castleton Knight, UK, 1929) (Screening format – not known, 50mins) A part-silent, part-talkie thriller set largely on the Flying Scotsman express between London and Edinburgh. A disgruntled railwayman (Alex Hurley) attempts to wreck the train after he is sacked after being caught drinking by the train’s driver Bob White (Moore Marriot), who is working his last day before retirement. White’s daughter Joan (Pauline Johnson) is also on the train, having fallen for White’s new fireman, Jim (Ray Milland). As well as being Milland’s first starring role, the film is also notable for all the stars doing their own stunts, including Pauline Johnson who was doubly challenged by wearing high heels while hanging off the side of the train. Find out more atheyuguys.com . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. Introduced by Steve Foxon. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, LeicesterLink

The Rugged Island: a Shetland Lyric (Dir. Jenny Gilbertson, UK, 1933) (Screening format – not known, 56mins) A dramatised documentary story about a young couple torn between the choice of emigration to Australia or remaining to work their croft in Shetland. Documentary film maker Gilbertson ( who also did all her own scriptwriting, filming, sound and lighting as well as direction) was initially encouraged in her work by John Grierson, who had purchased some of her earlier documentary films for the GPO Film Library. While making The Rugged Island, she met and married John Gilbertson who was the star of the film. Find out more atmovingimage.nls.uk . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, LeicesterLink

Hirondelle et la Mésange (aka The Swallow and the Titmouse) (Dir. Andre Antoine, Fr, 1920) (Screening format – not known, 80mins) Shot entirely on location on the waterways of Flanders, the story is set on two canal barges, L’Hirondelle (The Swallow) and La Mesange (The Titmouse). The drama involves the tensions between the barge captain and the pilot whom he has hired to steer the coal-bearing ships to areas in France devastated by the war, but who sullenly lusts after the captain’s wife. Never releaed upon its completion on the grounds that it was not commercially viable, the unedited film lay in the archives of Cinémathèque Française until the early 1980s when the perfectly preserved footage was edited into a completed film using Gustave Grillet’s script and the director’s detailed notes as a guide. Find out more at silentfilm.org . Presented as part of the British Silent Film Festival. With live musical accompaniment. Phoenix Cinema, LeicesterLink

The End of St. Petersburg (Konets Sankt-Peterburga) (Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin, USSR, 1927) (Screening format – not known, 87mins) A peasant comes to St. Petersburg to find work. He unwittingly helps in the arrest of an old village friend who is now a labor leader. The unemployed peasant is also arrested and sent to fight in World War I. After three years, he returns ready for revolution…..Commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, The End of St Petersburg secured Vsevolod Pudovkin’s place as one of the foremost Soviet film directors. His sophisticated analysis of the Revolution sits within a brilliant and dramatic reconstruction of the major events. Find out more atsensesofcinema.com . With live musical accompaniment by Harmonieband. MAC, Birmingham (No link yet)

NB. Whilst every effort has been taken to ensure that the information contained in these listings is accurate, silentfilmcalendar.orgcan take no responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies. You are strongly advised to confirm with the venue that the event remains as detailed, particularly if traveling any distance to attend.